Hyperdimension Neptunia: The three years
by OffbeatName
Summary: Set during and after the time of the intro of Mk2. During the three year downfall of Gamindustri's nation and shares what will the main character do? Stop the formation of ASIC, or be swallowed by a unfortunate past.


Disclaimer: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia or any characters that belong to other franchises, except any OC`s I have created.

I might as well say this: This is my first try at a published fanfic, expect mistakes.

Without further ado, let us begin.

* * *

As everyone probably knows by now, the world of Gamindustri is comprised of four different nations that represent consoles in the real world. Planeptune is based on the never released Sega Neptune, Lowee is the Wii, Lastation is the PlayStation three, and Leanbox is based on the Xbox three-sixty.

Each of these nations are guarded by a CPU; a console patron unit. They can be referred to as the living embodiment of their nation, and... Ah screw it with the explanations lets get on track.

We are going to focus of an offset isle far outside Gamindustri, I should also mention there`s one island for each nation. These four islands are located in relative close-proximity to one another, well within sight of one another. The islands were created by request of the civilian`s as well as the CPU's to create more guild members/military personal for each nation.

Histoire was more than glad to gather up enough sharicite to create the islands. She also loved that the bill had passed, a few months after the CPU's beat Arfoire monsters started spawning furiously. It didn't help that all the CPU's were lazy in their own unique way.

Now shall we focus on the main character for the rest of the chapter?

A teen could be seen from nowhere certain as he was on a boat, miles off the shore and away from anyone's view (Thank the goddess we have a sky camera.)

Anywho, this boy was headed from Leanbox towards it's custom island; Slimbox. He was with other men and women from different ages, some even looked to be around their fourties. They were all headed out to Slimbox to pursue different paths, or just join the military.

The main character who's name is by no means important right now looked over a letter he held tight the whole trip:

_Hey, how's everything going over there in Leanbox? Planeptune's weather is real nice this time of year. I have to ask you a favour, I need you to go join the next group that`s headed off to Slimbox. The rumors were true about the monster population increasing rapidly. Also, ignore what everyone one else tells you..._

The young teen lowly spoke the last bit, "Become a hunter. From your loving sister, Falcom"

* * *

I muttered to myself in disgust, "Ugh, if only she had a cell phone paying so much for these letters wouldn't be such a pain."

A rough looking man piped up at the minor note I made to myself, "Why bother with letters these days? Half the credits you send out don't go towards forwarding it, the greedy bastards at the post office just take it for themselves."

Seeing as he was interested in some banter I assessed what kinda person he was and said, "Yeah, but she's family. Plus it's the only way I can talk to her long range, since she has a habit of ending up in water."

"Say no more" The man shook his head from side to side, "I can't count how many phones I myself have lost to that blue bitch." He said that last part with quite the emphasis.

A while had passed before we talked again so I took note of his appearance. He looked to be in his mid thirties, with short-cut black hair as well as some stubble on his chin. He was clad in what looked like some decent hunting gear; he wore a plaid vest over a normal black shirt while he had camo shorts on his legs.

I looked towards him, "Name?"

"Cabella."

I stretched out my had to shake his, which he did the same, "Nice to meet you Cabella, my name is... uh Error."

"Well that's quite the name you got there, can't imagine what people have called you before."

"Don't remind me."

We both shot our gazes at a loudspeaker at the front of the boat, "Two minutes till landing, pack up your stuff and get ready to serve your nation."

Cabella motioned me to follow him which I agreed with. We both went to a storage room where we went to retrieve our belongings.

After some gearing up, I took notice of his weapon which was a longbow. I questioned him, "Considering your clothes I guessed your would a knife fighter."

Cabella simply tightened the string on his bow and said, "The wood that I hunted in had it's fair share of brutish monsters. To survive I needed to to the stealth approach."

I looked at the only obvious stealthy piece or clothes or him, "Your shorts are the only thing that's camouflaged on you."

"It's still camo."

I shot a confused gaze at him, then went back to my equipment. I went and carefully manoeuvred my weapon out of storage to prevent any damage. It was only after inspecting it that I heard a whistle.

Cabella joked at me when he noticed I had paid attention, "Wicked scythe you have there. Going to put some people out of their misery?"

My scythe stood from the ground easily reaching my shoulders. The handle had a nice ornate design to it that was mostly black with green around the area where one would normally grip the weapon. The top where the blade was easily extended long enough to almost match the handle in length, the blade of it was mostly black while getting a more silver polish to it around the slicing part.

I looked into the reflection of my blade to see how my hair was and solemnly said, "Not gonna go there, also I need a haircut."

* * *

The boat had docked and before me I could see a good fifty people in front of me. Frankly they had the same question in mind as I did, what the hell do we do now?

With some random banter between me and Cabella I stared off into space with my hands resting in my pockets. It took me a while to snap back to reality, only to realize that everyone was kneeling in one direction with there heads bowed.

I questioned everyone, "What's on the go?"

Cabella quickly yanked me down to the ground, "You idiot! Do you realize who's in front of us?"

In my half-dazed state I answered, "No, not really. Kinda got lost in my thoughts for a minute."

Cabella simply pointed up to the person that should have our devoted attention. It was none other than lady Green Heart herself, standing before us with her eyes shut. When I saw her I had a weird reaction, eyes narrowed, heart beating faster than it should, as well as the quick gasp of air.

I collected myself and told Cabella, "Thank the goddess she has her eyes closed."

Cabella simply replied, "You don't know the irony of that remark."

Just as I was about to digest what he said Green Heart spoke up, "Thank you for paying attention to me, I was simply waiting for you to bow before I got started. I almost wondered if you were lost for a second."

I could feel a sweatbead form from hearing that.

She continued, "Now even if we have people on our force who are stargazers. I assure you that each and every one of you will provide support for our nation in some shape or form."

A man who was standing to the side, clad in a Leanbox themed army uniform stood forward, "All rise and stand firm, we will escort you all to the next section over our island introduction program. Now if you would all follow me this will be a lot easier."

All of us slowly got up then followed the army man who headed straight for a large building. Out of all of us I took a look back at Green Heart, I seen her walk off while talking to another army soldier. I couldn't understand much of what they were talking about. The only thing I could make sense of was faintly hearing, "They can handle it."

The building that we were going to was akin to the usual Leanbox style; natural. The building was a basic log cabin with nothing making it stand out from the rest. The inside proved to be more interesting as tables were along side each other with more than enough chairs for all of us. The man in uniform naturally waited for us to all sit down, but me and Cabella had other plans.

We checked along the wall to find it adorned with skeletons of large animals, and parts of them to. Breezing by the oddities we focused on the center of attention, a wall of achievements. From top to bottom the wall had no more visible room for any more plaque's for any would-be success, the most interesting part was most of them were earned by one guild member.

I turned my head to Cabella, "I don't know about you, but I'm wondering who this 'if' person is."

Cabella was equally perplexed by the name of the person and said, "Beats me, for all we know this is just because there's no one else around to earn any achievements."

I nervously laughed at what he said as we went and sat down. On cue the man started his explanation, "This is Slimbox isle, pride of Leanbox and lady Green Heart herself. You are all being recruited to help Leanbox in any way possible. We will not force you to choose any specialization that you do not want, the choice is yours as long as it benefits this nation."

The man reached under his shirt and pulled out a chain that had two dog tags attached, they were gold in colour. He took of the necklace and held it up for everyone to see, "As you can tell these are dog tags. They are specially crafted to list basic information such as, time of service, specialization, and name. At the end of the week we will have your tags ready for you all."

Everyone mused to themselves upon hearing this and eagerly awaited their next surprise.

He then calmly asked, "Would the people who can naturally use magic stand up." People looked back and forth between one another to see if anyone could use magic, "There's no point in hiding it, we did a background check and we know who can and can't.

I shifted my eyes from my left to right, checking nervously. Cabella took notice of this then tapped my shoulder, "If you know magic stand up. It will make this less awkward than it already is."

I noticed that when I started to rise around two other did so in unison. The man smirked and said, "You three come to the front."

The three of us slowly walked through the crowds, hoping to avoid any eye contact. We got to the front of the makeshift class and waited patiently for the next orders.

"Tell everyone what kind of element you guys can use."

"Wind."

"Ice."

I slowly said with hesitation, "F-fire?"

I looked at my fellow trainees only to see distrust and looks of shame.

The man got in front of us all and spoke aloud, "Relax gentlemen. We would not bring magic users here if they were the psycho's that caused us trouble years back. At ease people."

Hearing that made me breath a sigh of relief. I'm gonna have to explain this one to the hunter.

The man in uniform finally introduced his real name to everyone, mentioning that we would be associating with him for the next few weeks. His name was Rick.

Rick left the room and told everyone to stay where we were. That alone raised confusion. Soon after he left he was lugging an altar while being accompanied buy a strange hunched over person, with all sources of identification blocked by a robe with it's hood over his face.

With a visible hand that came out of the shroud he motioned us to come to the altar.

Rick mentioned to us that he will explain things in place of the shaman, as he is old and dying.

One at a time each of us would place our hand on the altar that we conjure magic with and use a spell. This would cause a reaction with the altar that negates our spell and casts it's own on us.

I cautiously asked Rick, "What spell is the altar going to use on us."

Oddly enough he said without shame, "I do not know!"

The shaman then whispered some words to Rick as he then said, "Oh! That's right. As part of Leanbox's discovery division, conveniently dubbed "Double D" would like to have some living subjects as research for this new spell."

The ice mage questioned, "Is this a matter of choice? Also what spell is this?"

"This is simply a binding spell. It will bind one of nature's creatures to you. This is in a certain sense, permanent. Would you three like to volunteer?"

Thinking to myself on what he said I looked down at the back of my left hand to see the most symbolic thing relating to fire; a pentagram. Not noticing the other two move on without me I could only look as the one of the mages stepped up to the altar. He wasted no time in his choice, quickly putting his dominate casting hand on the altar and using magic. The ice users hand glowed a bit signalling that some spell was cast, then the magic was absorbed as the altar cast it's own spell on the "subject". I felt an odd sinking feeling when the ice mages spell was absorbed.

Soon after the odd blue aura that formed around the ice mage disappeared a cloud of mist was slowly revealing a creature on the floor. Everyone looked in awe as the mist cleared to reveal an ice tarantula. The spider quickly scurried up the mage's leg all the way up to his shoulder.

Rick added his two cent words to the situation as a reminder to us all, "We have no current knowledge on how summoned creatures are dismissed. We expect that you have to use your will to banish it until the creature is ready to be summoned one more."

The ice mage looked at his summon as it made an odd clicking sound of a cry. The mage closed his eyes for a second, and in a puff of icy mist the spider disappeared.

I thought to myself, "_Sweet_"

Naturally the next of us that went up was the wind mage. He eagerly did the same as the person before him and quickly earned a familiar. The familiar I expected to show up was an eagle, but instead it was a owl. When it was summoned it shrieked at the shaman that was in it;s few before flying around the room. The owl looked to be in a panicked stat until it seen it's master, with that it settled down and pitched on the mage's shoulder, not without the pain that comes from something like that.

The wind mage kept his familiar out which the class eyed with awe, seeing this the ice mage re-summoned his spider. I took some time to admire the owl and spider; a particular thing that I noted was that their behaviour was more docile than the creatures would regularly be when found in nature, in every sense they acted like a proper familiar should.

The time was nigh for me. I took a breath and started walking to the alter, a smirk formed across my face as I my wondered what possible familiar I could get. Knowing what the other two managed to summon, I would get something in relation to my magic.

I placed my hand on top of the altar, the pentagram on my hand glowed orange for a second as I prepared myself. When I was ready I cast what would be a basic fireball, the altar began it's process of the summon spell while I felt that sinking feeling again. When I felt the intensity of the summon spell I wondered why the other two mages didn't freak out like I am. Trying to pull my hand off the altar failed as it felt like my hand was glued to it, I had no choice but to let the spell continue.

A black puff of smoke appeared on the ground in front of me as I wondered what I summoned. This was quickly dismissed as a crow flew at my face; clawing and pecking at me. I took some scratches before I could properly guard my face while the crow never let up on the attack. Giving in to defensive instincts I swat the crow towards the wall, and in a cloud of black smoke it vanished.

Looking at the shaman I quickly apologized, "Oh, shit I killed it. Is there any way I can summon him again."

The shaman slowly said, "You found the second way how to dismiss a familiar."

Laughter could be heard as I made my way back to my seat, as well as the two mages.

He quickly got my attention and said, "Even though you can dismiss a familiar that way it is not the best thing to do. Knocking a familiar unconscious will lower it's friendship with you.

When the shaman took the altar and left the building Rick spoke up, "Now listen up! I am about to give all of you Leanbox standard issue U.I's. These U.I's, short for User Inventory will have many effects. A HUD, inventory, quest log, and other small functions. Step up to the front in single file to obtain your U.I."

Everyone did as they were told and stood up, except Cabella. I questioned him, "Hey, you coming or what?"

Cabella waved his hand at me, "You go, I'll tell you later on why I don't need one."

When we all got our U.I, Rick began once again, "As I told you about it's functions I might as well mention this: Your U.I can be upgraded with numerous enhancements, one's that boost capacity, to simple things like colour."

Examining the U.I I noticed that it had a retractable, adjustable strap mainly so one could fit it anywhere on their body, and the area where you access your inventory was a silver round circle with a green 'X' across it.

Holding the device in his hand Rick pointed out, "Simply tap on the X to access your inventory. When first using a U.I hold onto the X for five seconds so the device can calibrate itself." He then pointed to a door in front of where we came in, "Now get the hell out of here and make your nation proud."

A majority of the class stood up and said in unison, "Yes sir!" Making a satisfying sound.

With that we all headed outside to the open fields of Slimbox.

* * *

Author's Note: So guys, what do you think? Need some improvement in some area's? Either way, please leave a review if you have the time (No flames please.)

I'll try to have the next chapter up within the week, or maybe sooner. Also, a question for you readers out there. How long should a chapter be in your eye's? I feel the need to try and make a decent amount while not having too much, so I'm thinking that around 3000 per chapter is a good start.

Peace.


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